Over the past year or two we have introduced a unique concept to help save your self-funded plan on retiree healthcare costs. This is NOT Medicare Advantage or some other type of retiree plan, it is pure cost savings!

Here are some things to consider:

Pre-65 retirees have average costs 40% higher than employees of the same age.

Over the past year we have met with hundreds of brokers around the country. Most of them are struggling with their business in light of the ACA law and are looking for ways to transform their business to keep up with the changing environment. DAS (Disability Advocacy Service) has been viewed as a great fit for their portfolio and has allowed them to differentiate themselves from others in the market place.

A few brokers have even decided to purchase DAS themselves as a value add to their health care and other voluntary products (Broker paid!) as a way for them to bring more value to their clients. The brokers are now calling DAS the “Blue Collar” LTD plan, and it opens up terrific new sales opportunities for them. With DOUBLE COMMISSIONS right now!

If you are looking to add a new product to your portfolio that addresses a large segment of the working population, DAS may just be the thing!

Today we’ll start a new series covering Word of Mouth and how it can make or break your business in an extremely short amount of time. In this first lesson we’ll get a feel for what exactly word of mouth is.

Word of mouth is easily the most powerful form of marketing and is absolutely free. People talk about ads they see, experiences they have and the products they purchase. If you treat people right and spread the word about your new products/services in a positive way, you’ll attract the right customers and clients who will sustain your business for a long time.

Now, as positive as word of mouth can be for your business, the other side of the coin is how negative it can be as well. Bad news seems to travel invariably faster than good news, and if you have a less than high-quality product or weak customer service system, your customers will tell everyone they know not to buy your products and services.

The age of technology has proved to be an amazing benefit in the world of word of mouth. With blogs, podcasts, online marketing, forums, social networking and all the other online mediums available, it is easier for consumers to share their experiences. And remember, this is all free advertising for you.

Let’s take a minute to talk about the importance of shortening the customer decision cycle to help the customers/client to choose more quickly and easily. There are three great benefits of shortening the decision cycle:

Increase the overall dollar amount customers spend on each purchase.

Increase your number of customers.

Increase frequency of purchases.

Let’s take a deeper look at decision speed. Offer simplicity, ease and a fun purchasing atmosphere and you’ll help your customers make their decisions quicker and more confidently. When this happens your customers will buy more frequently, spend more money than usual, refer friends and make the decision to purchase more quickly. This can raise your market share by over 100 times.

The time it takes your customer to decide and purchase far outweighs any other component of marketing. When you focus on customer decision speed it forces you to take a hard look at your company’s brand image, positioning, value, customer service, guarantees and product quality.

The next area I want to talk about quickly is how to minimize the friction, or stress, involved with decision making. No matter how easily people find decision making there is a certain amount of anxiety we all experience when making a purchase, especially from a new source or for a large amount of money. When you help to minimize this emotional response, you will soothe your customers’ anxiety and they will make their decision quicker and more confidently.

Here are a few secrets to accelerate the customers’ decision making progress:

Your benefits, features, claims and promises must be obvious, clear and concise.

The information you offer must be complete, easy to understand, credible and balanced.

Use comparisons that show a marked difference.

Your guarantees must be rock solid and more than the customer expects.

Make trial periods easy.

You must have simple evaluations of your products or services.

Testimonials need to be relevant and positive.

Your support, delivery and other operational systems must be perfect.

Your website can be as good as you make it. You can offer more than information; you can offer an experience that guides your customers gently through the decision making process to make it easy for them to buy. Take it a step beyond by offering toll-free support numbers, software downloads to help with the process or other classy and informative ways to reassure your customers that you are there with them every step of the way and have nothing to hide.

This wraps up the first post in our series on word of mouth. If you need help identifying your target market and the issues with their purchasing experience that is increasing decision time, let us know!

Next time we’ll move forward with word of mouth and talk about what exactly this powerful tool is and how it can be used.

Open enrollment season is fast approaching and we are all gearing up to have a great year in sales. We would like to provide an additional incentive to you by offering double the first year’s commissions on all NEW DAS sales. We are having tremendous success in offering DAS through the agent and broker network, and we want you to share in that success. Remember, DAS is a perfect fit alongside your voluntary products and offers an affordable comprehensive income protection plan when combined with an STD, CI, Hospital or Accident policy. Some of the current markets DAS is being sold into include:

City Employees

Housing Commissions

Tool and Die Workers

Restaurant Workers

Dentist Offices

Doctors’ Offices

Home Healthcare Workers

Child Care

Plumbers

Insurance Agents

Teachers

Nurses & Hospital Workers

Law Firms

Custodial Workers

Auto Dealerships

Veterinarians

Optometrists

Property Management

Office Workers

Tire and Auto Centers

Cleaning / Maid Services Rehab Offices

Collision Shops

PEO Services

Many more

If they can’t afford LTD or get underwritten for it – they are a perfect DAS case!

Double the commissions for the first year and the ability to offer your clients a low cost valuable service, a win-win opportunity!

For more information on the contest feel free to contact me at any time! Good luck and have a great open enrollment season!

The last few posts have talked about how to multiply the resources that you’ve worked hard to maximize. So far we’ve covered:

Call in the Troops

Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork

Black Sheep Clients

Olympic-Size Sales Staff

Open Water Fishing

Call for Back-Up

Go Big Online

Bartering with the Best

Give Away the Farm

Today we’ll finish up this series with the last three ways to multiply your maximized resources:

Finding Your Pot of Gold

Stay at the Top of Your Game

Wealth from the Inside Out

These areas are all key to keep up the momentum you’ve found in making what you have work harder for you.

Finding Your Pot of Gold

You must always have a goal you’re working toward in order to stay on course. Your goal needs to be something you can attain that will utilize your full potential. Don’t be afraid to aim high, just make sure you are clear on what your goal is and exactly what you need to do to get there. You need to continue to hold yourself accountable to your goal and raise the bar as you accomplish the steps toward it.

Stay at the Top of Your Game

Once you’ve mastered these areas, you need to make sure you are staying competitive and constantly coming up with new ways to use your new tools. Don’t rest on one success when there are more on the horizon. To continue to be successful your business must continue to learn and revolve.

Wealth from the Inside Out

Wealth and riches are defined within yourself, not by your profits or the world beyond. You can use all these strategies in both your business and your life to find a greater level of success. When you naturally reflect who you are and what you mean, you will automatically attract the right people to you. This will happen in life and in business.

You are capable of reaching your goals as long as they are well-defined with a solid road built to them.

Throughout the last seven lessons we’ve talked about how to take a hard look at the resources you currently have right in front of you and maximize them to get the most out of what you already have. Then we showed you how to turn around and multiply those maximized resources to take them to the next level.

If you need help with any of these areas, steps or processes, we could be a great resource for you.

Over the last few posts we talked about how to multiply the resources that you’ve worked hard to maximize. So far we’ve covered:

Call in the Troops

Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork

Black Sheep Clients

Olympic-Size Sales Staff

Open Water Fishing

Call for Back-Up

Today we’ll cover the next three:

Go Big Online

Bartering with the Best

Give Away the Farm

Go Big Online

There are businesses who solely operate online, there are those with only physical addresses and there are those who do both. Those who do both are by far more successful than the previous two. When you take the time to establish an online presence you open up your business to the entire world, through a few clicks of the mouse.

To successfully sell products or services online, you need to:

Offer high-quality products/services that people want.

Build an attractive, effective website that’s user-friendly.

Generate high-quality traffic at a low cost.

With all of these things in place you can find success with your online exposure.

Bartering with the Best

If you’ve ever gone to a yard sale and paid the sticker price, then you need to up your bartering game. Everything is negotiable and you need to take the time to barter with your suppliers. Companies are always open to bartering and when all is said and done you could find yourself saving significantly on the things your business needs to operate smoothly.

Give Away the Farm

Ok, so not literally, but you have to be willing to stay in contact with prospective clients and offer them products and services they are going to need. You don’t know what they need until you offer them everything you’ve got, then work with them to put together the perfect package to fit their needs.

When you take the time to put yourself at the front of their minds, they are more likely to work with you going forward. You can do this by offering free newsletters, a free consulting session or other valuable tools.

This wraps up these three areas of multiplying on the resources you’ve maximized. If you’re not sure where to start or are feeling a bit overwhelmed, we can help.

Next time we’ll finish up this series with the last three ways to multiply your maximized resources:

Last time we talked about how to start multiplying on the resources you worked on maximizing. We covered the following areas:

Call in the Troops

Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork

Black Sheep Clients

Today we’ll talk about the next three:

Olympic-Size Sales Staff

Open Water Fishing

Call for Back-Up

Olympic-Size Sales Staff

Now we all know you can’t have a sales staff of 10,000 who work around the clock for free, but there is a tool that will do exactly that – direct mail marketing.

Direct mail is a written piece of sales and informative copy that offers information about your company and your products/services to potential customers/clients. It can be sales letters, brochures or proposals to be mailed out to a list of leads.

This approach will not only open your door to thousands of new customers/clients, but it can save you thousands of dollars in advertising.

Open Water Fishing

You have to be careful not to waste your time on clients who are simply not interested. You have to focus on bigger fish. Remember the previous lessons about how you should always be targeting higher-quality prospects.

To do this you have to take the time to research and learn about your potential clients to make sure you are targeting the right companies to work with. Make sure they are companies who will benefit from your products/services over a long period of time.

If you’re not sure where to start in finding big fish clients, go back over our previous lessons or look into purchasing a direct mailing list that specifically targets the clients you need. You can purchase or rent lists with name, title, job specs and contact information. This gives you a jumping off point in finding high-quality clients.

Call for Back-Up

Don’t be afraid of telemarketing. It’s a powerful tool than can be done tastefully and is highly effective. However, keep in mind, when not handled correctly it can bring about negative reactions. To be successful with telemarketing you need to use these tips:

Your first line of defense should be mail marketing.

Test before you start a telemarketing campaign.

Set the price for your offer.

Use a progressive approach with your campaign.

Progressive contact helps build trust and allow the potential customer/client to establish a positive relationship with you. These are the progressive steps you should take:

Put your prospect at ease.

Present your offer in a natural, conversational way.

Avoid being argumentative or pushy.

Always be honest.

Perfect your 30-second elevator speech.

Clearly state your name, business name, reason you’re calling and where you got their information.

Offer the benefits of your products and services.

Mention one of the features that back up the benefits.

Ask preliminary questions that give you more information about the prospect.

These step-by-step methods can help you be successful with a telemarketing campaign and avoid a negative response, which could stigmatize your business forever.

This wraps up these three areas of multiplying your resources. We’ll continue with this series for the next two posts to give you all the resources you need to get the most out of your current resources.

If you need help working through any of these processes or areas, feel free to reach out to us.

The next series of posts will cover how to take maximizing resources and multiply them for even bigger results.

In this first of the four-part series we’ll cover:

Call in the Troops

Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork

Black Sheep Clients

Call in the Troops

Finding and securing new clients can be exhausting and expensive. Instead, work with other companies to help you find new clients. Find solid companies with secure, positive relationships with their customers/clients. Also, ensure that their products/services are not directly competitive with yours.

Contact prospective partner companies and talk with them about helping promote your products/services to their clients. Always offer them a commission on the sales that come from their client lists.

Make sure to include these key points in your proposal:

Ensure that your products/services don’t compete with theirs.

The partnership will not take away from their current or future sales.

The partnership will increase their profits.

They won’t have to do or spend anything on the partnership.

You will produce all needed marketing materials.

You will offer an unconditional guarantee on all products/services.

Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork

If you take the time to put together a solid referral system, you’ll draw new customers/clients out of the woodwork through everyone you already know. You can start doing this through first showing all your current clients how much you care about them.

Then show them how your products/services can significantly improve their lives or businesses. If you can do this consistently, they will naturally and comfortably bring new clients right to you.

Black Sheep Clients

One of the best ways to rejuvenate business is to find your stray clients and offer them something amazing. First you need to understand why they strayed and are no longer purchasing from you. There are generally three reasons customers/clients leave:

Unrelated causes that have nothing to do with you

A problem with their last purchase

No longer benefit from your products/services

The best way to bring these clients back is to simply contact them. If you don’t make the first move, they’ll never come back. Make an appointment to visit them, or call them if it is not possible to meet in person.

Talk openly with your stray clients. Let them know you noticed they were no longer working with you and that you’d like to talk with them about their experiences with your company and how you can improve things to work together again. Take the time to make them feel special and work hard to make sure their experiences with you going forward are the best ever.

This wraps up the first three areas on how to multiply your maximized resources. If you need help working on any of these ideas or processes, feel free to reach out to us!

Next time, we’ll talk about the next three areas of multiplying your resources: Olympic-Size Sales Staff, Open Sea Fishing and Call for Back-Up.

Corporations have been actively working to reduce healthcare costs for many years. However, even when every aspect of healthcare costs for active employees has been reviewed, changed, modified and consolidated with some success, healthcare costs continue to rise.

One of the most overlooked areas that can significantly impact the overall group health plan is the pre-65 retiree population.

Here are some interesting facts:

Optimal coordination of Medicare and retiree healthcare can lead to a 10-15 % decrease in overall ongoing healthcare costs for employers.

There are approximately 15 million pre-65 retirees covered by employer-sponsored group health plans and millions more from state and local government plans.

Pre-65 retiree medical costs are 1.5 times higher than that of active employees.

Profit Enhancement Group – Benefits Divisions’ Services has been providing Medicare coordination services to Fortune 100, State and Local Governments and Unions for over 25 years. These organizations have utilized our services for significant costs savings as it relates to pre 65-retiree healthcare without negatively affecting the employee.

More than 100 million working Americans have no disability coverage other than Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Millennials – now the largest part of the workforce – may be most at risk. Millennials are least likely to have disability coverage offered through their employers or private insurance providers, and most don’t understand long-term disability insurance.

However, one in four 20-year-olds will become disabled before they retire, as noted by the Council for Disability Awareness. This is a reality many boomers are experiencing firsthand. Nearly 75 percent of all individuals receiving SSDI benefits today are between the ages of 50 and full retirement age, according to the Social Security Administration.

Yet, SSDI remains difficult to obtain, and it should. Why? It is there for those who need it the most, those who are truly disabled and no longer able to work or care for their families. Making the process hard for everybody limits those who want to take advantage of the system but hurts those who really need it.

That is where DAS comes in. You are providing your employees/subscribers access to a long-term disability alternative that includes healthcare without having to go it alone with the government or worse yet, using attorneys that get paid based on how long the case takes.

Think about that the next time you are evaluating insurance protection!